


Enemy to Caretaker

by Agib



Series: Whumptober 2020 [6]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Bisexual Derek Morgan, Coming Out, Enemies to Lovers, Gay Spencer Reid, If people want..., M/M, Pining, Spencer sleeps with his rival, Unless I do a chapter 2, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:47:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26858437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Agib/pseuds/Agib
Summary: Ethan and Spencer were, in Derek’s perspective, far from close.
Relationships: Derek Morgan & Spencer Reid, Derek Morgan/Spencer Reid, Ethan & Spencer Reid, Ethan/Spencer Reid
Series: Whumptober 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1945771
Comments: 11
Kudos: 95
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Enemy to Caretaker

**Author's Note:**

> <3 for my beta and freind, Dani, her Ao3 is: [Starsandsupernovae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsandsupernovae)  
> And her gorgeous tumblr: [@reid-and-writing](https://reid-and-writing.tumblr.com/)

Ethan and Spencer were, in Derek’s perspective, far from close. 

  
  


To his knowledge, all they had in common were four of their five courses and the same dorm floor, one below his own. And their attitude towards each other, obviously. 

  
  


And said attitude was  _ miles _ away from a positive one. 

  
  


They acted like they hated each other, which, granted, was fair in the smaller picture. They were continually gunning for top spot, best mark, teacher’s favourite, that golden spot in the academy once graduation passes in a year and eight months. 

  
  


Derek hadn’t understood it when he first met Spencer in their intro to sociology class first semester, but the more he grew to know the kid - and yes, kid, because Spencer was all of sixteen when they met and only recently surpassed eighteen - the more he understood the rivalry. 

  
  


Spencer and Ethan should’ve been friends. It made sense. Two children - twelve and  _ just _ fourteen in the first year - taking majority of the same classes, doing all of the same extra curricular projects, being paired for assignments and being the only two students on campus who had been given single rooms by the college. Now, an eighteen and a twenty year old who’ve been sharing classes and experiences for six years. 

  
  


You would think they’d gravitate towards each other. 

  
  


Evidently not. 

  
  


Spencer was obsessive with how on-task he was. Every homework assignment was completed within the day it was assigned, projects handed in weeks in advance for extra grading time, owned every possible textbook to offer, thanks to his full-ride scholarship, and the list went on. 

  
  


Ethan had fit in more with the general population, partially because he was only four years behind the average first year as opposed to six, and also because he knew when to step away from the books and let loose. He had been offered a space in a fraternity at sixteen and had been turned down in the end by administration considering he wasn’t even old enough to buy alcohol, let alone live somewhere surrounded by it. 

  
  


Bottom line was, Spencer and Ethan were rivals. Enemies in academics. Whatever you chose to call them. They hated each other. 

  
  


Which should relieve him of any worries, but it doesn’t. Spencer and Ethan might hate each other, but he’d always found himself holding resentment and anxiety over how much time they had to spend together in classes and study groups. 

  
  


Since day one, he’d been protective of the kid. He was twelve in an adult environment. Derek was there for a football scholarship only three years early, putting him a year ahead of Ethan and three ahead of Spencer at fifteen.

  
  


After getting close enough with the frat boys on his football team, he found the majority of them who were on a scholarship took additional classes, almost enough to form a separate degree with nothing to do with football. So he signed up for sociology, psychology, and a law degree. 

  
  


Intro to sociology was where he had met Spencer. The worry of being the only young kid in a class of eighteen-year-olds or over was squandered upon seeing the scrawny twelve-year-old sitting in a chair, feet barely grazing the floor as he took notes. 

  
  


They grew closer slowly, easily, friendship felt natural. It was an unconventional companionship to say the least, a jock and a nerd, both younger than the rest of the campus’ population. Spencer had his plans in life laid out, Derek was happy to go with the flow and run his own course.

  
  


Spencer grew up, turned from some stick-thin, twelve-year-old into a gangly-limbed, doe-eyed eighteen-year-old with two PhD’s, three degrees and two BA’s, a final for both in progress. His hair grew out, Ethan kept his short, Derek shaved off his unruly mop of ringlets to his mother’s disappointment - “ _ mom I can’t even fit my helmet on _ ” - and the three of them coexisted as the youngest on campus at almost any given time.

  
  


Despite the friendship he had gained and nurtured with Spencer, Derek still found himself overly protective and partially resentful for Ethan’s odd relationship of much time and much less fondness for each other. Now, Derek took at least seven months to figure out  _ why _ exactly he felt this way, and when he did, it wasn’t exactly surprising.

  
  


He  _ liked  _ Spencer.

  
  


The six foot string bean he’d jokingly called pretty boy for years had grown into something far more desirable than a friend over the past year or so.

  
  


And suddenly the amount of time Spencer spent with another man his age was nerve-wracking for him. Anything could happen, whether it was a budding romance or Spencer getting hurt, either way Derek didn’t want anything of the sort to happen.

  
  


What he  _ did  _ need to happen was him figuring out what he was doing with his newfound feelings.

  
  


\----

  
  


“Hey,” Spencer greets. He has his side bag filled with textbooks and his infamous study planner.

  
  


“Hey, pretty boy,” he jogs up. Spencer plops himself down on the bleachers to read as Derek joins him. “How was the study group?”

  
  


“Eh, it was alright,” he shrugs, pulling his planner out and crossing off a meticulous study group notation now that he was done. “Did you talk to the coach about quarterbacking?” 

  
  


“About playing quarterback for the next game? Yeah, it’s a pass from him,” Derek grunts. He stares listlessly onto the practice field where he had been kicking goals all afternoon, waiting for Spencer to finish up.

  
  


Spencer laughs quietly, shaking his head.

  
  


“What the hell was that for?” He demands.

  
  


“Was that… not a pun?” Spencer asks hesitantly.

  
  


Derek lets his weight sag, a small laugh of his own breaking through his dismal cloud of disappointment.

  
  


“I guess so,” he huffs. “C’mon, let’s go before Denny’s closes the breakfast menu.” He slings an arm around Spencer who shoves his books away and stands at his side, following alongside him happily.

  
  


\----

  
  


“No, he just totally kept on  _ looking  _ at me from across the library. God, he’s so irritating,” Spencer huffs. He has a plate of pancakes despite the time - almost three in the afternoon.

  
  


“Maybe he wanted your notes,” Derek jokes. He has curly fries and a burger with a side dish of aioli. He prods a fry and holds it up to point with his fork, “you know, I never understand why you order pancakes at every brunch place we try, even if it’s lunch time.”

  
  


“Never got to have them as a kid,” he says through a mouthful. “Making up for lost opportunities.” 

  
  


Derek laughs, shaking his head again incredulously.

  
  


“It was actually really weird, um, one of the girls in my study group said he was ‘checking me out,’ whatever that meant.” Spencer continues.

  
  


Derek looks up from his plate, eyes screwed up analytically. 

  
  


“What?” Spencer asks dumbly.

  
  


“I don’t love the idea of that,” Derek mutters, stabbing the last portion of his burger absentmindedly. “I mean, not that you shouldn’t date, or anything, just - everything you’ve told me so far makes him sound like a jerk, which you don’t deserve.”

  
  


_ You deserve someone like me _ hangs on his tongue, staying unsaid.

  
  


“Oh, um, I didn’t know you felt that way,” Spencer says, surprised.

  
  


“Well how did you think I’d feel about you dating an asshole?”

  
  


“I… didn’t think you’d really care either way.” Derek stares at him for a long moment before putting his fork down to the side.

  
  


“I think this is about something else,” he says honestly. “And I should’ve said something before, it would’ve made you feel more comfortable but I was still figuring stuff out for mysel -”

  
  


“Derek, what’s going on in your head?”

  
  


“I think, maybe, I’m like you in that I - I like… men.”

  
  


Spencer grins, and Derek’s heart sinks back into place where it had been pounding in his throat for too long.

  
  


“Der, that’s great! I’m so pleased you came to terms with something like this, it’s a really big step of what Aristotle calls our -”

  
  


“But I also like women,” he says quickly. “I like both, and I don’t really know how to… yeah, I don’t know.”

  
  


“Bisexuality or pansexuality is the word you’re looking for. Liking females and males or liking people regardless of their gender identity.” Spencer explains. There is absolutely no judgement in his voice, only willingness to please and help Derek out with his understanding and confusion. 

  
  


“Thanks,” he says genuinely. “So,” Derek hums. 

  
  


“So?”

  
  


“Would you?” He asks.

  
  


“Would I… what?”

  
  


“Y’know, hook up with Ethan?” He questions seriously. 

  
  


Spencer inhaled, biting the inside of his cheek for a good minute before responding. 

  
  


“Um, I’ve never, so I mean - I think - well, uh - I honestly don’t know.” He stumbles over his words and blinks rapidly. 

  
  


“Interesting,” Derek says. He hopes Ethan doesn’t make a move, because a part of him knows Spencer wouldn’t turn him down, rivalry aside. 

  
  


——

  
  


Derek should have thought harder on Spencer’s point, he should have taken the opportunity to express himself and the confusion he had surrounding how he felt about the kid. His best friend of many years. 

  
  


Wasted time and potential happiness went down the drain faster than Derek could really comprehend when, the week after their talk, he rushes over to Spencer’s dorm. 

  
  


He had a single, because when he joined campus he was too young to realistically share a dorm with an eighteen-year-old. So, Derek spent a lot of time there, so much so that he hardly even knocked, he just came in and laid flat on the couch for Spencer to find within the hour. 

  
  


The quarterback quit the team, and it was entirely unexpected. Coach placed him in the role for the rest of the playing season and Derek was  _ overjoyed _ to say the very least. 

  
  


Spencer had promised he’d come to every game and postpone study sessions if he was ever off the bench for longer than ten minutes per game, and the star quarterback role was going to keep him on the field almost the entire game. 

  
  


He bursts into the dorm, grin on his face and calls for Spencer. He barges down the small hall and pushes open the almost-shut bedroom door, knowing the kid was probably having a power nap before more study. 

  
  


“Spence! I got th - oh…”

  
  


He stops dead cold in the doorway, his cheeks heating up in embarrassment. 

  
  


Ethan - fucking self acclaimed mortal enemy and constant rival - was laid shirtless in Spencer’s bed, eyes on Derek and arm wrapped around a sleeping Spencer’s waist. 

  
  


Spencer is wearing his oversized college hoodie, the sleeves covering half his hand, which is laid on Ethans bare chest. 

  
  


“Spencer,” Ethan says quietly, nudging him slightly. 

  
  


“Uh, sorry - you don’t have to wake him, I was just leaving,” Derek forces out. 

  
  


All his excitement was gone now, his heart lay by his feet on the floor. He was disgusted, disappointed in himself for not seeing this coming. 

  
  


Spencer, upon being shaken gently, only makes a soft sound and presses his head against Ethan’s chest, sounding content and comforted. Still half asleep. 

  
  


“Spence,” Ethan says, louder this time. Derek frowns at the nickname.  _ Had it really been necessary? _

  
  


“Wh’t?” Spencer grumbles. 

  
  


“Um, I just - I think I’ll go,” Derek mutters. Spencer’s eyes shoot open and he bolts to sit upright, covering Ethan’s chest with the blanket. 

  
  


“Derek!” He doesn’t say so much as he yelps. “I didn’t - I mean, this isn’t - we aren’t -”

  
  


“I know, yeah, it’s fine,” he says, trying to sound genuine. He wonders if this was a once off hookup, a friends with benefits situation or a relationship. 

  
  


_ God _ , how he hoped it was a once off.

  
  


He leaves the apartment to the sound of Spencer rushing to get Ethan dressed and out, and a brief “Derek, wait!”

  
  


He doesn’t bother. He doubts he’ll be able to have a civilised conversation with Ethan or Spencer after seeing them like…  _ that _ . 

  
  


He hopes he won’t be bitter forever, but he can’t help hating himself for not making the reasonable attempt to explain to Spencer how he felt. 

  
  


Why he wanted to be close to his side, why he slung an arm around his shoulders and found excuses to touch. Why he jokingly calls him pretty boy and why he misses their shared psych classes during the playoff season so terribly. 

  
  


But instead he bites his tongue and heads for his own dorm, knowing Spencer will likely follow him down once Ethan is actually  _ wearing clothing _ and leaving the room too. 

  
  


_ Things will be okay, _ he tells himself.  _ Spencer can do what (and who) he wants. It’s fair. It’s reasonable.  _

  
  


Then why does his chest hurt from shame and regret, and his eyes burn with unshed tears?

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr is [@ag-ib](https://ag-ib.tumblr.com/)
> 
> my heart goes <3<3<3 when anyone sends asks


End file.
